Episode 50 but there’s no time for self-congratulations because there’s more Defence incompetence to talk about – and top of the list is the General Purpose Frigate. In this country we are told nothing, but speaking in the UK the Head of RAN Capability explained that, yes, we will be purchasing an existing design with no changes whatsoever. None. However, this new design is also expected to comply with Australian regulations and be compatible with existing Australian and allied combat systems. In other words, this is impossible. You cannot have a ship built for another navy and for it to also be fully compliant with Australian standards – it cannot be done and people arguing to the contrary clearly have zero project management experience. Also we unpack the smearing of Luerssen and the disgraceful rumours peddled by the RAN to cover up their own failures. There is a way to fix the capability gap – build corvettes based on the Arafura design that will have 80% Australian content with the first ship delivered from Henderson in 2026.

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